Regions in Germany are facing an intensifying structural change towards the knowledge economy which is affecting spatial patterns of growth. . Features of such a change know many facets: fierce competition for skilled, mobile and motivated labor force, unemployment of non-qualified labor, longer...

It is necessary for policy-makers to assess region's overall performance and given sector's efficiency relative to other industry sector's performance in the region to achieve regional policy objectives. Regional economics has attempted to develop techniques to analyze differences among regional...